In the art of conveyors made from assembling a large number of substantially identical injection moulded modular belt links a wide variety of different belt links exists which are developed in order to address special needs in the industry to which they are implemented. For some conveyors it is essential that they are very strong, other conveyors carry relatively heavy loads and as such have a high wear against the substructure, whereas other conveyors again need to provide secure footing for the products carried on the conveyors etc.
In order to address all these different needs the industry has over the years presented a number of various solutions including a special belt link module designed for specific tasks.
One such example is known from EP 1 407 985 wherein a modular belt link having eye parts arranged along forward and rearward edges for hingely connecting adjacent belt links, is disclosed. The module body between the forward and rearward edges is provided with a cavity in which cavity a high friction material is disposed, and protruding above the surface of the belt module body. In this manner a module having a standard configuration is provided, but due to the special insert, a special characteristic is provided. Furthermore the construction uses well known materials for manufacture of the main part of the belt link (which is also typically cheaper), thereby using proven injection moulding techniques, and afterwards adding the high friction material, which may not be suitable for injection moulding and/or provide the desired strength, wear, tension or other characteristics.
It is generally recognized that having to maintain a large stock of a wide variety of products is not very economically attractive, and in addition provides logistic problems (i.e. getting the right type of belt links to the right customer etc.).